Most of the work of planting takes place before the actual planting day; the work is in soil preparation and careful selection of your tomato variety, finding one that will do well in your yard and that makes delicious fruits.
Once that part is done, though, there is more to consider. I made a little video that tells about setting a tomato transplant into the ground and how to defend it from cutworms. Here is the video:
The tomato that I planted today is a Park’s Whopper. I don’t usually plant my tomatoes this early, but I know that plenty of gardeners are planning to do just that this weekend. Hopefully, the video will be helpful.
After the planting, the protecting
After planting the one tomato plant, I laid a thin layer of newspaper on the soil around it, to keep fungal spores from splashing up onto the leaves from the soil below. Then I spread a thin layer of pine bark mulch over the paper, to hold it down.
A thin layer of newspaper helps protect the plant from soil-borne leaf diseases. Thin layer of pine bark mulch holds the newspaper down and adds another layer of protection.
When the plant looked well-defended from soil-borne leaf diseases, I wrapped the lower part of the cage with clear plastic sheeting. The reason for the wrapping was primarily to protect the plant from too-low temperatures.

We are still having some nights with temperatures in the 40s. On the coolest nights, with the sides already protected, it will be easy to cover the top to hold in some extra heat.
The peppers and remaining tomato plants will get planted in another week or so.
For now, I will keep bringing them into the house on cool nights. However, they will all get the newspaper and mulch layered around them after planting.